Hello everybody.

 My name is Ralph, I'm from Germany, and I'll stay in Miami for one year.

I have stayed almost two month in Miami, yet. It was and is a great time.  I live with a very nice host family and I already made several friends  in school. All the exchange students are really great.

On Friday the 16th August 2002 I arrived at the International airport in Miami. Many people waited at the airport for Kathi and me. We flew together. (She is an exchange student from Austria). At the airport all the Rotary people made several pictures and the  first thing we did, was buying a cheeseburger at McDonalds. On the  next day I had to get up at 7 am to play paintball. It's a pretty big sport in the states. Two teams play against each other. Every player has a gun, which shoots balls with paint. If you get hit you're out. The aim is to hit every player from the other team. On Sunday my host brother and I had to cut the grass.

On Tuesday the 20th I went to my first Rotary meeting of my host club.  There I had to introduce myself for the first time and I gave the banner of my sponsoring club to the club president of my hosting club. To introduce yourself is very hard at the beginning, but you get used to it.

In my first week my host brother and I went Downtown Miami at two days. It was very interesting. On Sunday the 25th was the Inbound orientation. It was the first time, that I met all the exchange students. On Monday the 26th I had my first school day in Miami. My school is very big, almost 2000 students. The American school system is very different compared to the German. For example you have to change your room every period. On Saturday the 31st I met my second host family. They took me to my first football game. The home team were the Miami Hurricanes, they played against the Florida ANM. The Miami Hurricanes is a college team, they won very highly.

In the second week I joined the first Interact meeting in my  school There Jelka and I had to introduce ourselves again. For exchange students in the States is it necessary to join the Interact club.

From the 19th to the 22nd was a District conference on the Bahamas(Duty). All the exchange students, some Interact students and all the important persons of Rotary came to the meeting. We had a great time. Every exchange student and Interact student had a host family for 4 days. I had a German host family.  On Friday we had to introduce ourselves and show the flags of our country. Later we had a bus tour around the island and drove by the schools of the Interact students on the island. Later we had a great barbecue. In the evening everybody went to a kind of marketplace, the Square. On Saturday we had to make a part of the conference with the Interact kids. Then we made the dolphin experience. There you sit by the water, see tricks of the Dolphins and you are allowed to touch them. Later we had free time and I played volleyball. At night we went to a club in the  hotel. A few kids from the island rented a hotel room, so also my two host brothers. We rented the room to be independent from the adults. Sunday at 3pm we had to leave the island. The next weekend me and my host Mum went to the Kennedy Space Center. It was very interesting, especially the Saturn rocket, they launched to the moon and an old Space Shuttle. You could walk into the Space Shuttle and see how it really looks like. On Sunday I went to Kathi's birthday. So, as you can see, I have to do something all the time and it is very  much fun. You get to know the culture, the people; the whole country. I want to thank everybody who made this great experience possible for me and all the other students.